Railway-tie and rail-fastener.



0. BACKES.

RAILWAY TIE AND RAIL FASTENER.

Patented Feb. 12, 1918.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 11. 1917- 1,256,287.

FIG. I.

FIG. 3.

OSCAR BACKES, OF CROOKSTON, MINNESOTA.

RAILWAY-TIE AND RAIL-FASTENER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 12, 1918.

Application filed December 11, 1917. Serial No. 206,619.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR BACKES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Crookston, in the county of Polk and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Railway-Tie and Rail-Fastener, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to means for securing together the rails and the ties of railways. and the main object is to provide a reliable substitute for any and all forms of railway spikes and thereby remove the danger of spikes working gradually loose in the ties and causing train accidents by leaving the rails more or less loose.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a hollow metallic railway tie with a pair of rails secured upon it by my novel rail fastener. Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of what is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged section on the line 33 in Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing by reference numerals, 1 designates a hollow metallic railway tie having in its top apertures 2, below which are inserted transversely arranged bolts 3 having nuts 4 bearing against one side of the tie to hold the bolt secure against jarring loose.

Upon each of said bolts is pivotally placed within one of the apertures 2 a railfastening device which is composed of a main member 5 placed on the bolt and having an angular jaw 6 taking against the edge and the upper side of the base flange 7 of the rail 8. In said main member is mounted a slidable member 9 hating a jaw 10 adapted to engage the underside of the top plate 11 of the tie (see Fig. 3). Said member 9 is provided with a shoulder 12 which limits the forward movement of the member and also serves to support a washer 13 against a spring 14 which encircles the member and tends at all times to push it forward with the jaw 10 in under the top of the tie.

Pivoted at 15 to the main member 5 is a lever 16 having at one end a fin erhold 17 and at the other end teeth 18 meshing with teeth 19 on the slidable member 19.

In the use of the device after the same has been placed with the primary member upon the bolt 3 it may be thrown backward into idle position as shown in dotted lines at 20 in Fig. 1. The rails are then put in place and the fastening devices swung toward them and by giving a pull at the lever 16-l7 the jaw 10 is retracted, and after the upper jaw (3 gets down on the flange 7 the lever is released and the spring 14 allowed to push the jaw 10 into locking position with the tie. The spring is strong enough to prevent children operating the lever 17, and as the strain on the rail by passing trains has no tendency whatever to compress the spring the rails are secured in the most reliable way by this device.

If it be desired to move the railway track or to remove worn rails and substitute new ones the rails may readilv be set free for removal by opening the fastening devices and swinging them into the position 20 in Fig. 1 while the old rails are being removed and new ones substituted, or while the entire track is being moved.

The short dotted lines 21in Fig. 2 are to indicate that the holes in the ties for the bolts 6 may be either elongated or sutiiciently larger than the bolts to permit the bolts to be moved a trifle in cases where the rail flanges 7 may be extra wide or extra narrow. Vhen the nuts 4 are firmly tightened the bolt will be held thereby in the desired place in the hole, and if a great lateral strain on the rail should move the bolt the movement is so slight that there is no danger of d splacement of the rails. because the variation in width of their base flan es is usually very slight.

\Vhat I claim is 1. In combination, a railway tie, rails placed upon the tie, rail fastening devices each of which is composed of a primary member secured to the tie and having an angular aw bearing against the edge and adjacent top of the ra l flange. and a secondary member slidable in the primary member and having a jaw arranged to engage underneath a part of the tie below the primary jaw, a spring arranged to hold the secondary member with its jaw engaging the tie, and means for retracting the secondary member from engagement when so desired.

2. The structure specified in claim 1 with the further modification that the device is hingedly attached to the tie so it may when disengaged from the rail be swung away from it.

3. The structure specified in claim 1 with the further modification that the means for retracting the secondarymember is a.

lever pivoted to the primary member and engaging the secondary member.

4. The structure specified in claim 1 with the further improvement that the tie is a hollow metallic tie.

5. The structure specified in claim 2 together with the further improvement that the hinge joint is slightly movable to and from the rail and is provided with means for securing it to the tie at the desired to place.

' In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

OSCAR BACKES'.

Copies of this patene may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner 03 Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

